In headrests for vehicle seats which are known in the art, functionality, comfort and construction size compete with one another. First and foremost, the headrest should be able to offer a user good head adjustment with a protective function against the effects of external forces. Headrests with side wings to improve head adjustment are already known from the state of the art. In particular, the side wings on headrests of this kind can be used to secure the user's head when resting or sleeping to prevent it from slipping sideways off the headrest.
A headrest of this kind is known from DE 10 2004 058 788 A1, for example. The headrest has at least one swiveling padded part which is mounted in a swiveling movable manner on a central pad. So as to allow comfortable adjustment of the headrest, it is provided that a bladder which can be filled with fluid is arranged in the padded part between the padding carrier and the padded part to swivel the padded part.
A further headrest is described in US 2005/0161993 A1 which has a center pad and two side pads laterally hinged to the center pad which can be swiveled forward into a resting position or back into a supporting position. In order to offer optimal support to the head in the upright and also in the laid-back head posture, the center pad has a variable pad hardness, so that the center pad displays a firmer pad hardness in the supporting position than in the resting position.
Furthermore, a headrest is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,668 B1 which comprises a center head padded part and two side wings assigned to the head padded part which project beyond the front of the pad to the side on the center head padded part in the in-use position and can be swiveled into the contour of the center head padded part in the out-of-use position. The two side wings can be swiveled in a mirror-symmetrical manner in respect of the vertical center line of the center head pad and cover the back of the center head padded part in the out-of-use position.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,099 discloses a headrest for a vehicle seat with a front surface and two side surfaces, wherein the headrest has two members that can be extended from the side surfaces which are completely contained in the headrest to begin with, but which are designed to move with a sliding movement into an extended position. The members then extend sideways relative to the headrest and furthermore forwards relative to the headrest, wherein they form an additional support for a user's head in the seat.
DE 199 55 046 B4 discloses a headrest over which a supporting cushion can be slipped.
Against this background, the problem addressed by the present invention is that of providing a headrest for a vehicle seat which offers an adjusted, comfortable and secure support for a user's head. In particular, the headrest should exhibit good directional control of the head and be configured in such a manner that it supports an upright head posture when driving or reading, for example, and also a relaxed head posture, when resting or sleeping, for example. Moreover, in order to provide these features, the headrest is to have a particularly simple and cheap-to-produce design which in addition requires the smallest possible number of components. Moreover, the headrest should also offer easy, intuitive operation. Furthermore, a vehicle seat should be provided with a corresponding headrest.